Xperia Arc-Hands on review of Gingerbread and SE UXP-Spec Details & Features Video

The Latest announcement from Sony Ericsson is the Xperia Arc with Snapdragon 8255 and 4.2Inch Multitouch screen with what they call is a Reality Display. Sony Ericsson announced Xperia Arc in CES 2011 and it is very close to what rumors have been about the Codenamed Anzu or Xperia X10’s Successor, Xperia 12. This is model no LT15 and named as Xperia Arc for all general purpose. Sony Ericsson’s selling point would be Sony’s Exmor R sensor in it’s HD 8.1Mp Camera and Bravia Mobile Engine Display, same display engine used in Sony Bravia TV’s, which they call it as the Reality Display. Of-course coupled with Latest Android 2.3,Gingerbread and Sony Ericsson’s UXP. 🙂

I’m pretty excited to see the UXP coupled with Latest Android 2.3,Gingerbread. Another point to note apart from the Bravia Reality Display, is the Air Sealed gap between the Screen and Top Glass, which simply blacks out any chances of any reflection which should be great for viewing outdoors and when you are viewing it from different angles. 🙂 The Snap Dragon 8255 processor is also clocked at 1Ghz which is better and faster with graphics. Xperia X10 also had the SnapDragon Processor but it was 8250. Another advantage of 8255 SnapDragon Processor is that it is more power efficient which could give you more hours of talktime. And when it’s coupled with Android 2.3,Gingerbread, you got to have great Battery Life. 🙂

I love the design and but the only thing that disappoints me is the lack of front camera. With support of Video Calling in Gingerbread SDK, there would be more and more apps that use that feature and i would definitely feel left out when i find my Xperia Arc can’t do Video Calling. 🙁 Other than that i would have preferred a camera shutter and a lit cover for the Mini-USB jack, but thats not a deal breaker for me.
I like what they have done to Mediascape, used the basic Android Player and made a good Mediascape Widget, Media Pane. They have tried to keep things less complex yet rich user experience, which would eventually mean timely Android Updates. As we saw in the Leaked portfolio roadmap for Sony Ericsson in year 2011, the main focus is to get the Android Updates in time. And with Gingerbread, they have a new APK file for all the visual changes you see and they call it as the skin. So, modifying the core becomes easier than ever.

Enjoy the video of first hands of Xperia Arc, where they check out the Gingerbread with Sony Ericsson’s UXP, it’s the video from GSMArena.

The UI seems to really fluid and fast and considering it’s just a prototype, it’s got to really good when it comes out in Late Q1 and Early Q2 in most markets. Probably similar launch to what it was with Xperia X10. Did you like the idea of Pinch zooming only the Widgets on the homescreen and not all your homescreens? I love Sony Ericsson for how they do things differently. 😀 I know most of would probably change the default homescreen to some thirdparty launcher apps, but looking at the majority of Xperia Arc users, who don’t like to tinker the default settings, would love the ease of use and great user experience delivered. Isn’t it?
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The fluiditly doesn’t seem to be same with the video made by Rikard from Product Launch Blog. He tried to make a quick tutorial on the new Homescreen or desktop on the XperiaArc with the Timescape widget and Media Pane that i discussed earlier. He also answered a few details about the Xperia Arc, check them after the enjoying the video by rikard. Let us know if you want to know something that is not mentioned here!

And here is the specs and few clarification on the specs and features of Xperia Arc by Sony Ericsson rep, Rikard on Sony Ericsson Product Blog.

– The CPU and GPU specs are: MSM8255 at 1 GHz with Adreno 205.
– The music player does have an equalizer, my current software has 10 different genre based presets.
– It does not have a front facing camera.
– Mediascape is removed in its earlier form and has changed into a customizable widget based “media pane” (as shown briefly in the video)
– It’s too early to officially give detailed comments around specific later Android versions for XperiaTM arc during its lifecycle but the changes we have made to our way of working with Android puts us in a good position to make sure that Xperia arc will get later versions in a timely manner.
– I’ve seen articles around higher numbers than 2.3 being seen in the display of Xperia arc phones – As I have been informed that is due to a misconfiguration in some samples and nothing to get too excited about really, sorry.
– It does have two microphones which will be used for noise suppression during phone calls.
– The camera LED flash is possible to put in four different modes; Auto, Fill-flash, Red-eye Reduction & Off.
– It does have full multi touch support, I just tried a similar multi touch test app as I did in the video on the X10 and at least in that app it accepts 4 simultaneous touch points without any issues with X- and Y-axis or such things. I will try to get confirmation on final specs in regards to multi touch.
– It does support wi-fi up to the 802.11n mode.

Feel Free to let us know know your Opinion about the same in the comments section! 🙂 Stay tuned for further updates on Android and Xperia series phones by Sony Ericsson. Do Join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

5 thoughts on “Xperia Arc-Hands on review of Gingerbread and SE UXP-Spec Details & Features Video”

I really feel bad…
As a X10 Owner and early buyer of x10 , i am really disappointed how SE is treating its users..
I feel as if i am beta tester…
Arf will recieve updates on timely manner ? look at x10 scenario .. – no updates beyond 2.1

This is totally unacceptable ….

This is to SE

WHAT MAKES YOU THINK < WE TRUST YOUR WORDS..
I made myself clear that i will never buy another SE in my life.. HTC/ Samsung/Google nexus is what my next phone will be ..

SE is full of lies and hopeless promises… I am not going to buy thier words again…

This is how it goes. Take any company, Samsung’s first android phone, first Galaxy was not even updated to Android 1.6, not a single update! HTC Hero, got the Android 2.1 update in October 2010.
Xperia X10 is still very compelling. I mean take any phone that has Android 2.1. SE still cares for it’s customers and is atleast incorporating those things in Later Devices and you can’t beat SE’s UXP with latest Android version for sure. Anyways, thats my personal opinion.

I too have X10 and i am feeling horrible ! but i suppose we can install those features into x10 as well. Manish pls tell me if i am wrong ! and another problem i am facing on my x 10 is that all video’s in the youtube is stopping at 5 sec’s !! 🙁 it buffers but does not play at all ! unable to uninstall it as it is a part of 2.1 ! pls help with the issue

Thats a strange problem. Does it happen with any video? Try watching non HD version of the Same Video. You can root your phone and install the Latest Android 2.2’s Youtube player on your phone, but if you don’t want to root your phone, and still have the problem, try doing a factory reset. Make sure you backup your data, before you do a factory reset. 🙂

Yes, it happens for every video 🙁 and yeah il try the factory reset and let you know 🙂 But hesitant as il have the data burden and apps ! Also wanted to inform that Jet vd videos are also having the same issue. . .! only ones on the phone memory seems to be playing fine !